A Pastor-Driven Youth Ministry –
Becoming a Hero to the Youth of Your Church
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Paul wasn’t the most creative youth speaker. Having the young man Eutychus fall out of an upstairs window and plummet to his demise is not a milestone in anyone’s pulpit ministry (Acts 20:7–12). At least Paul followed up on this situation. He addressed the situation with what this generation needs: personal attention from spiritual authority and a demonstration of the supernatural.
GENERATION CONNECTION
WITH SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION
The angel who appeared to Zechariah told him that his son would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children (Luke 1:17). Can we apply the word fathers in a spiritual sense to pastors of churches, and the word children to the youth of this generation? This generation of young people is crying for relevant attention from spiritual authority. Youth ministry today must be pastor driven not merely youth-leader driven. The local church with no children or youth is a dying church. Unless the heart of the senior pastor pounds for the winning, building, and sending of children and youth, the local church will slowly and methodically have funerals until ultimately the church itself dies.
Some young people of this generation can relate to the young man in Acts 20. Due to the lack of participation by senior pastors, a nonexistent youth ministry to meet their needs, and the absence of personal leadership attention and youth ownership, young people miss out on the life-changing experience of the supernatural. As a result, young people fall out of the window, or head for the back door in a downward spiral to the postmodern world that teaches them to question the existence of absolute truth.
As spiritual leaders, let’s follow Paul’s example and embrace our young people and experience the supernatural presence of God together. This generation is longing for the genuine outpouring of the presence of God. When God and absolute truth become relevant to their cry and their need, this generation will pursue God with the focused energy and life the local church needs.
One third of Assemblies of God churches average under 50 people, and two thirds of our churches average under 100 people. Full-time youth pastors are not beating down the doors of these churches begging for a job. But these churches offer some of the greatest potential for church and community impact through aggressive youth ministry.
The community with one junior and one senior high school campus provides the potential for a dynamic children- and youth-based ministry. The church with a dynamic ministry will be seen as the church that is impacting the young people of its county.
Youth ministry as a whole tends to fine-tune existing youth ministry and build on its strengths rather than being apostolic and birthing new youth ministry in smaller area churches. We need to continue to invest in churches that have full-time youth pastors. Good things should be happening in those churches due to qualified leadership. But we shouldn’t believe that just because a church has a youth pastor, the senior pastor need not be involved—every church needs the senior pastor to drive the vision of the youth ministry. Meanwhile, we must address the need to help our churches with nonexistent or struggling youth ministries.
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EVENT-DRIVEN VERSUS
PROCESS-DRIVEN YOUTH MINISTRY
Pastors of smaller churches must have the opportunity to see a strong, vibrant ministry to the youth of their church and community. We are addressing this need in Illinois with a visionary placement effort called, "The Link." The Link places a youth pastor in a church that could never afford one. God birthed this strategy in Steve Thomas, of Calvary Temple, Springfield, Illinois, one of our youth pastors.
Throughout history, youth ministry has been event driven rather than process driven. Youth ministry has been great at having a big event, but weak at the process of long-term fruitfulness. The vacuum of leadership and constant changeover—whether hired or volunteer—have limited the effectiveness of the process. Both pastor and youth leader pursue the bigger numbers by doing events. Big events do wonders for stroking our egos and building our image. We are guilty of building the roller coaster of up-and-down casual Christianity that we have often accused the young people of riding. Students need the weekly process of discipleship that starts invading their day-to-day walk.
Young people cannot live on these big events. Illinois District Superintendent Paul Martin says, "Little if anything of eternal value will happen at the district level…but everything of eternal value will happen at the local church." I am a strong believer in gathering young people together to affirm and strengthen their faith in a larger setting. But the local church is the New Testament pattern. Our investment lies in the local church teaching and guiding teens in their daily walk with Jesus.
The small church that is dependent on a sectional youth rally for its youth’s spiritual energy bar is negating its responsibility of developing the process in its own church with consistent spiritual leadership, student ownership, and supernatural experience. Even the weekly youth service in the local church can create the event rather than the process. The youth pastor is missing the target if the church has an outstanding weekly youth service that is the event, but is weak in the process of training the day-to-day, life-changing walk. Do we give people what they want or what they need? It cannot be an either/or; it must be a both/and.
When I came to the district office 8 years ago, I asked Phil Schneider, one of our long-time, youth-driven pastors, "What is the number one thing you would do?" His reply was to create a training resource that would help the smaller church accomplish effective youth ministry by developing leaders with a process mentality. Teaming together with other effective youth pastors, we took an effective model from the Oklahoma District and created Youth Ministry Institute (See sidebar Youth Ministry Institute: A Helpful Leadership Tool.), an extensive resource to help train volunteer leaders in churches that do not have full-time youth pastors, and to help youth pastors train their volunteer leaders.
PASTOR-DRIVEN YOUTH MINISTRY
Churches today that lack relevance have open windows through which our young people can fall. We demand young persons attend our adult services every week, become pliable to our expectations, and be relevant to our adult setting. The style and order of our services (music, worship experience, prayers, participants, preaching, analogies and illustrations, and length of attention span) is adult focused, and young people are expected to make the process work for them. Some churches build multipurpose rooms for all ages, but multipurpose is still defined as adult (the color doesn’t appeal to a youth; pictures do not depict young people; the setting does not say this is owned by our youth). The place says, be careful, don’t mess anything up, others have to use this.
Raising children can be messy. Children and young people need space and a place to call their own, with identity and relevancy. They need people to reach into their world. Young people can be challenged and trained to works of service. Instead of adults complaining about the loudness of the music, or sitting on the back row, or even not coming because it is "just" youth night—a pastor-driven youth ministry can have adults on the front row cheering students involved in the process, as students lead others in experiencing the supernatural presence of God.
Pastors, Paul didn’t turn his youth situation over to the youth pastor or a volunteer leader. He stepped up with spiritual authority, with personal passion, to see the supernatural at work in a young man or woman’s life. So, let’s pick up the dead, put our arms around them, and say, "They are alive."
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Youth Ministry Institute: A Helpful Leadership ToolNothing can prove more frustrating than lacking the right tools for the job–especially in youth-ministry leadership. Perhaps you’re a recent college grad wading through your first months of pizza parties and car washes, wondering how to foster spiritual depth in your teens. Maybe you’re the layperson nominated by the pastor to do something with the young people. Or you are a veteran youth worker searching for curriculum for training volunteer leaders. Youth Ministry Institute (Y.M.I.), the comprehensive youth leadership manual produced by national Youth Ministries, can prove helpful to any adult entrusted with the responsibility of local church youth ministry. Each of the 10 chapters in this 222-page manual is chock-full of thought-provoking and practical ideas to help you direct an effective, relevant youth ministry. The manual introduces the programs and resources available from National Youth Ministries, then focuses on the life of the youth minister, challenging him/her to live an authentic Christian life worthy of students’ emulation. Y.M.I. teaches the youth worker to cast vision for youth ministry, and how to develop significant relationships with all those involved in the formation of teens’ lives. The manual also explores the elements of an effective youth program, model youth group designs and formats, and approaches to outreach and evangelism. Other components include a study of youth culture and a helpful chapter on administration. At the end of each chapter is a toolbox of practical and personal helps such as worksheets, reproducible forms, check lists, time tips, counseling helps, icebreakers, and 52 sample sermon outlines. Also included are a syllabus and final exam, should you choose to use the manual for classroom instruction. Still trying to find the right tool for the job? Youth Ministry Institute can be purchased for $29.95 by calling Gospel Publishing House at 1-800-641-4310, and requesting item #733-306. |